The 36-year-old, three-manual organ will be the centerpiece of the Pueblo Symphony’s “88 Keys & 4,000 Pipes” concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Zahari Metchkov, professor of music at Colorado State University-Pueblo, will be the guest artist.

It’s not that the organ doesn’t get used, Metchkov said. Students use it frequently for classes and recitals. However, the public rarely gets an opportunity to hear it.

“This type of program doesn’t happen very frequently at all,” he said.

Metchkov will play Francis Poulenc’s Concerto for Organ, Timpani and Strings in G Minor.

“It’s the most established concerto in the organ repertoire,” Metchkov said. “It’s one movement with a variety of characters inside. Some are very dramatic, others tasteful and light — there are very quick changes. It’s a wonderful piece.”

Metchkov said he and symphony conductor Jacob Chi collaborated on the selections for the concert. Metchkov will switch to piano for Franz Liszt’s “Totentanz (Dance of the Dead),” which is based on the melody of a Gregorian chant.

“I think Jacob knew I played both pieces in the past and I think he also wanted to have an opportunity to have a person play both instruments (in one concert),” he said.

The Liszt piece “makes wonderful use of the orchestra,” said Metchkov. “It’s very entertaining and very hard to play.”

“Masquerade Suite” by Aram Khachaturian and Aleksandr Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances and March from “Prince Igor” also will be part of the concert.

Tickets for the performance are $30 and $35 and are available at the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center box office, 210 N. Santa Fe Ave., or by calling 295-7200.

Students may purchase any remaining tickets for $5 at the hall just prior to the concert.